Posted on 05/10/2005 2:39:12 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Real wages in the US are falling at their fastest rate in 14 years, according to data surveyed by the Financial Times.
Inflation rose 3.1 per cent in the year to March but salaries climbed just 2.4 per cent, according to the Employment Cost Index. In the final three months of 2004, real wages fell by 0.9 per cent.
The last time salaries fell this steeply was at the start of 1991, when real wages declined by 1.1 per cent.
Stingy pay rises mean many Americans will have to work longer hours to keep up with the cost of living, and they could ultimately undermine consumer spending and economic growth.
Many economists believe that in spite of the unexpectedly large rise in job creation of 274,000 in April, the uneven revival in the labour market since the 2001 recession has made it hard for workers to negotiate real improvements in living standards.
Even after last month's bumper gain in employment, there are 22,000 fewer private sector jobs than when the recession began in March 2001, a 0.02 per cent fall. At the same point in the recovery from the recession of the early 1990s, private sector employment was up 4.7 per cent.
Stagnant salaries push more families towards the breadline
A surfeit of workers and the threat of off-shoring are allowing companies to call the shots on wages.
Go there
“There is still little evidence that workers are gaining much traction in their negotiations,” said Paul Ashworth, US analyst at Capital Economics, the consultancy. “If this does not pick up, it raises the prospect of a sharper slowdown in consumer spending than we have been expecting.”
Economists are divided over the best source for measuring pay increases in the US, since the government releases three main measures. A gauge of average hourly earnings is released with the employment report. This rose by 0.3 per cent in both March and April and 0.1 per cent in February. Even with a slight rise in the hours employees are working, from 33.7 to 33.9, this suggests wages are struggling to keep pace with inflation. The gauge covers non-supervisory workers, about 80 per cent of the workforce.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis figures for personal income showed wages rising at close to 6 per cent in 2004 but slowing down since. This measure also showed wages rising by just 0.3 per cent in each of the past 2 months. This is a broader gauge and includes small businesses and professional partnerships, but it measures total corporate wage bill rather than wages per person.
The Employment Cost Index, seen by some as the most reliable measure, excludes overtime and professional partnerships.
The last time real wages grew this slowly was 1991...psst, preceding the great bull market.
http://www.laborresearch.org/charts.php?id=8
Great cartoon, because obviously Safeway and WalMart workers are just like slaves and Safeway and WalMart stores are just like slave owners. It's funny though, I don't remember slave owners allowing 40% annual turnover or contributing to 401K plans.
More than that, the model is not being represented correctly here, see posts 9 and 18
That's not the problem. The avergae voter will be turned off when the problems that usually happen under Democrat gov'ts happen. The Republican advantage is they are backed by the right policies. When they don't follow those policies, events play out just like under Democrat policies.
How about elimnating state funded abortion? Use that money. How about the billion dollars in aid that goes to Egypt? Use that money. Perhaps eliminating programs that provide free tuition to illegals? Use that money. Maybe cutting funding to those who would put a Crucifix in piss and calling it art? Use that money..
I suppose we can track this if donations to the RNC decline.
Usually one performs measurements to confirm ones models.
In 1999/2000 the unemployment rate dipped below its natural rate, the 4% unemployment and less we saw during that period was not sustainable.
There has been a net creation of 839,000 jobs created since Bush took office, not great, but not all that bad considering the unemployment stands at 5.2%, which is below the average UE rate of 70s, 80s, and 90s.
They'll pass the savings to the consumers, right?
We should see credit card rates fall back to 8% now that bankruptcy reform was passed, no?
Typical Bullcrap reporting by Financial Times. Most of this so-called decrease was in fact the rise in gas prices. Wages were in fact up but they did not keep up with inflation for the first three months. Financial Times as usual blow all this crap out of proportion and goes into their usual fear-monger bullshit. Financial Times is not worthy of wiping my ass with.
Second Headline (page 12B):
A gas tax is designed to pay for roads, those who use the roads pay for it (ask the truckers, they pay a lot)
I know there is a alot of Bush basing regarding this subject but unfortunately he deserves alot of the blame. Illegal aliens are driving wages down with the underground economy and our out of pocket costs for services are rising exponentially.
We have had illegal problems for years, don't forget the previous tenant in the WH legalized thousands of them to vote-of which a large chunk were criminals.
In 1999/2000 the unemployment rate dipped below its natural rate, the 4% unemployment and less we saw during that period was not sustainable.
There has been a net creation of 839,000 jobs created since Bush took office, not great, but not all that bad considering the unemployment stands at 5.2%, which is below the average UE rate of 70s, 80s, and 90s.
The "growth" of the 90s was always unrealistic, due to the tech/dot.com bubble (aka electronic tulip bulbs)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.